1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to detecting a face and converting a skin color, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for converting the skin color of an image.
2. Description of Related Art
With the development of digital devices, images are increasingly being converted from analog format into digital format. Currently, research is under way in the field in which appliances that digitally capture and store images can process stored digital images so that they satisfy the human visual recognition.
In devices such as digital cameras or digital camcorders that capture and store images, skin color is one of the first elements the eyes focus on. Accordingly, proper conversion of the skin color is important in improving the performance of such digital image devices. In addition, converting the skin color is also important in other software and hardware that converts digital images.
Speed and accuracy are elements that determine the performance of digital image devices and image processing devices. However, the speed and the accuracy deteriorate if a skin color conversion method is applied to images without the aid of a person. For example, in conventional methods disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,900,860 and 6,678,407, a skin color is converted into a desirable skin color by using a method of converting colors between a standard color and a targeted color, or by using a lookup table. During this process, however, a background or other objects having similar colors to the skin may be converted into the skin color regardless of whether a face is included in the image. This causes unnecessary processing and wastes both time and processing resources.
Therefore, it is necessary to reduce unnecessary color conversions by checking for the existence of skin in order to perform fast and accurate skin color conversions.